Fans of the hit drama DOWNTON ABBEY should prepare for both laughter and tears in a two-hour special. The Christmas special airs at 9pm, Christmas Day on ITV1. Get a sneak peek below!

The episode will see Lord and Lady Grantham and family heading for a summer break in The Highlands of Scotland, leaving most of their servants back at home. The annual visit to his Scottish cousins at Duneagle Castle, where the piper calls the tune for breakfast and dinner, is the highlight of Robert’s (Hugh Bonneville) year.

The castle is a grander step up from Downton, with deer stalking and fishing also on hand in the stunning surrounding Scottish countryside. But while the cat's away, the mice will play and Carson will have his hands full keeping the staff behaving as one would expect...

As they face new challenges, the Crawley family and the servants who work for them remain inseparably interlinked. Throughout the great house new arrivals rattle the established hierarchies, and the lives of the inhabitants are as shaped by romance, ambition, desire, shocks and heartbreak as ever.

The secure, serene and ordered world of Downton is rocked by passions below the surface and there are changes above and below stairs.

The third series, set in 1920, sees the return of all the much-loved characters in the sumptuous setting of Downton Abbey.